"Washington talks about cutting spending but talk is cheap. One man stands out. Spencer Bachus, Alabama's conservative champion. Bachus fights Obama at every turn. Bachus doesn't just talk the talk, he walks the walk. Last time Congress got a pay raise, Spencer Bachus said no. Bachus refused the pay raise and sent the money back to reduce the debt. That's walking the walk. That's Spencer Bachus."

Analysis

U.S. Rep. Spencer Bachus, R-Vestavia Hills, is running for an 11th term in Congress, and he's attracted four primary challengers, plus two Democrats who also want the job. Typical for incumbents, Bachus has a significant amount of campaign cash already in hand and his first big disbursement of it is for a 30-second television spot that started running Monday.

First, the voice on the ad calls Bachus a "conservative champion" and a graphic appears on the screen that references a 92 percent rating from the American Conservative Union. The nonprofit picks about 25 votes out of the several hundred cast each year and rates members' conservative credentials based on how they voted on each. Bachus' lifetime score with the group is 92.59 percent. In 2010, the most recent year available, Bachus received a 96 rating. Of the 24 votes the group focused on that year, Bachus voted against them only once, and it had to do with the expansion of child nutrition programs in schools. ACU opposed it; Bachus was one of 17 Republicans who voted for it.

Second, regarding the assertion that Bachus "fights Obama at every turn," the Capitol Hill publication CQ Weekly measures presidential support based on voting records. In an analysis they released earlier this month, Bachus in 2011 opposed legislation supported by President Barack Obama 73 percent of the time. The publication only looks at those 95 votes on which the White House has taken a definite position.

The presidential opposition average among House Republicans last year was 78 percent. So while Bachus did not vote against the president "every" time and didn't even oppose him as often as some other House members, no one could mistake him for an ally of Obama's. For the record, Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Huntsville, had the highest presidential opposition score in the Alabama delegation at 81 percent.

Third, Bachus' ad refers to his decision not to accept the 2009 congressional pay raise and, instead, return it to the U.S. Treasury. As the Washington Post reported last year, only Bachus and one other member did so.

Bachus returned $414.39 each quarter of 2010 in what is called a "Gift to the United States for the Reduction of the Public Debt," which is now about $15 trillion. The money goes to the General Fund, the Post reported, to pay for government spending, which in turn lowers the amount the government needs to borrow.

In one quarter, Bachus and the other House member who returned money gave back a total equivalent to the amount the debt grows every five one-hundredths of a second, which prompted criticism that the gestures are symbolic gimmicks.